A Reason to Go On
by IsAry
Summary: Steve is in 2012 to return the stones after the battle against Thanos and he want to save his friends before living his life. He is lost in his sorrow, but a meeting with a strange girl will help his make the right decision...


**Hi! Today I want to try and write a one-shot! Since I have serious problems finishing a story, I thought that a one shot has a better chance to tell everything I want to tell without risking not to arrive at the end. (Don't worry, "Througth a camera lens" will be finished, I have all the story already planned till the end and I have a lot of ideas for sequels)**

**So, with this fanfiction I want to change a detail of the Endgame finale (if you have not seen it yet, DON'T READ!): the fact that Steve remained in the 40s with Peggy. I mean, despite the sadness and the melancholy of the movie, I loved Endgame and I find that the fact that Cap gets a little bit of happiness in the end is great. However, I can't help but feel sadness at the thought that in order to stay with her he leaves behind a real family (not only Bucky who after years of chasing him is at his side again). The first time I watched the movie I thought Steve would be a fantastic "uncle" to Morgan because despite everything that had happened, between him and Tony was born an indissoluble friendship. So you can imagine my reaction when he goes back to the '40s and stays there.**

**So, after this very long speech that most of you probably didn't read, I'd start the story and who knows maybe one day I'll write a sequel.**

**A Reason To Go On**

Steve sat on a bench in Central Park in the destroyed New York of 2012. He had returned the stones in their own time and he still had the last one from 1970, but seeing his old team whole again made the wound in his heart bleed again. It all seemed as if those few days following the battle against Thanos didn't happened.

Tony and Natasha were alive, the Avengers were united albeit at the beginning of their deep friendship and only Coulson had already paid the price of that war. It would have been simple for the Captain to reveal to his friends their hard future, to make them aware of some events in their lives and hope that it would be enough to save everyone.

But he couldn't.

Interfering with the past in that way would not be a guarantee for a better future instead of the one they had lived. He had made a promise to Stark: Tony had hoped to save everyone that they had lost with the first snap, but what he most had wanted was to keep what he had gained, the greatest gift those five years had given him: his daughter. Steve had to protect the existence of Morgan, he owed it to his friend.

"Sir, are you okay?"

Steve jerked his head up hearing that sweet voice and his blue eyes landed in the chocolate one of a young girl. She couldn't have been more than fifteen years old, she had long brown hair that hung down her back in soft curls and a worried expression was on a heart shaped face. She was wearing a white summer dress to relieve her of the heat of that mid-June afternoon, but her white skin was dirty and marked in several places by scratches and minor injuries. She was a survivor of the invasion.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because you are crying." She pointed out and when he touched his cheek with his hand, he could feel the tears wetting his fingers.

"Oh," he murmured, but he was not surprised after all he had experienced.

"You're Captain America, aren't you?" She asked surprising him again.

"What makes you think so?"

She smiled kindly: "I studied you at school, I could recognize you everywhere especially if you wear your uniform." and she pointed at him. In fact, he was dressed in his emblematic blue red and white uniform and before saying something else she looked at him from head to toe for a long time: "But you are not the same Captain America who just saved New York from aliens, aren't you?"

"You are a good observer," he commented seeing no reason to lie to that young girl and getting a shrug in response.

"I can read the signs of a time traveler on a mission."

How could a little girl like her know so much about him with just a look?

"You don't have to be surprised, Captain. After all that's happened to you, meeting a witch shouldn't be so weird, should it?" she asked amused by his reaction as she took a seat on the bench by his side.

"Witch?" He asked more and more shocked by the revelations.

"Uh uh." She confirmed.

"Like Doctor Strange?"

"Who?"

"Forget it, but you're not the first I meet that call himself in a similar way and you don't look alike."

"Despite everything you've seen, Captain, you still have a lot of secrets to discover about this universe."

"Definitely," he muttered as he looked away from the girl to stare into the trees that surrounded them lost in his thoughts. A witch ... actually, after all he had seen in his career, he wasn't so surprised that witches existed too and that they did not resemble the green and ugly beings described in the "Wizard of Oz". Certainly she had a different approach to the subject compared to Strange, not that he had had much interaction with the sorcerer, but the young girl he was seating next to was absolutely normal from the outside and you would never suspect her true identity.

"That doesn't tell me how you know that I'm out of my time," he finally said bringing back their previous conversation.

"Well, there are two reasons: the first one is your eyes." And saying that, she looked straight at him: "The Captain America of 2012 saved my life this morning and his eyes were not tormented as much as yours."

Steve ran a hand through his blond hair: "And the second one?"

"I am a seer." And when he looked at her confused, she added: "I can see the past, the present and the future of a person. I know the first two immediately as soon as my eyes land on someone, but the third one... I have to concentrate long enough or I have glimpse of visions from time to time when my presence is necessary to change things."

"So just looking at me you realized that I have a long and sad history behind me."

"So much more than the man I met this morning."

"And what else did you discover about me?"

She was silent for a few minutes looking for the right words: "That you are experiencing a conflict inside of you. You would like to save your friends, but you know changing the past is too dangerous. You feel that you have failed by allowing two of your companions to die under your command and you think you could have done something more to prevent it."

"You are good at understanding people," he said in surprise.

"It's not hard to understand how you are seeing your past and... I could have intercepted some of your thoughts too."

"You are a telepath too?"

She laughed throwing her head back and Steve found himself thinking that the teenager with time would become a beautiful woman because at fifteen she was already really pretty. He shook his head quickly looking away and chastising himself for having such thought about a girl so much younger than him.

"Captain, a witch has many powers and telepathy is among the most common ones. I am special because of being a seer, but many people can read minds."

He blushed at her words like a schoolboy who had made a mistake at school because she had given the explanation as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Sometimes I wonder if I couldn't have done more to recover the gauntlet from Thanos during the battle and make the final snap instead of Tony or what would have happened if I had sacrificed my life in Natasha's place to gain the soul stone. Would things have gone better or worse?"

"Do you want an honest answer?"

Steve spun around to look into her eyes: "Could you give one to me?" And to her positive nod he didn't hesitated to answer: "Yes."

The girl sighed before speaking: "Let's start with your last question: would have things been better if Natasha Romanoff had survived and you had sacrificed your soul for the stone?"

The Captain no longer made the mistake of asking how she knew the answer, he understood that the girl had knowledge that went well beyond her young age.

"No, it would have been much worse and Thanos would have won again by exterminating the whole universe."

"Why?"

"Captain, if I list to you everything that would go wrong, we would lose too much time. Let's just say that before all the Avengers revived by Banner's snap would manage to reach the battle, Thor would have been killed by Stormbreaker at the hands of the titan and Iron Man would have followed him soon after. Your sacrifice would be in vain."

Steve tried not to react to that revelation, but the idea Thanos could win after everything they had done to destroy him it was intolerable.

"About your other question, you just need to know that there are fourteen million possible futures if the story takes place exactly as you know it, but only one would see you victorious and that includes the death of the Black Widow and of Tony Stark."

Silence fell between the two as the Avenger was lost in his thoughts unhappy that there was no way to save his friends without condemning the whole universe. He had always been aware that in a war death was inevitable, but the deaths of Natasha and Tony had been as difficult as Bucky's in 1944.

"Anyway, I can see that you are still very undecided about your last move."

Steve recovered from his thoughts looking at her in surprise: "What are you referring to?"

She smiled at him again: "You don't know whether to stay in the past once the last stone has been returned just like you said you would do to your friend Bucky."

"I want to go back to Peggy," he said firmly, but at the end of the sentence his voice faltered while doubt crept into his mind again just as the witch has said it had before.

"Are you sure? Do you really want to go back to a time where you would only have the woman you think to be in love with and an old war companion who would be too busy with his job to share the true joys of life leaving behind the great friends you made in the future? Are you ready to leave Bucky after having found him? After years of pursuit? To say goodbye to Sam who has always been by your side even when you would dive in the most daring missions? And what about all the Avengers left that would have to mourn the loss of a third member? And Morgan Stark? Don't you think she deserve to hear your stories about the fantastic man who was her father?"

"I don't know." He admitted lowering his eyes to the ground: "Since I woke up, all I wanted was to be able to go back in my time and live my life with Peggy, but she went on without me, I know she was happy and I built a new life in the twenty-first century."

"Your presence in a post-war era alongside Peggy Carter would cause a chain reaction that would change history as you know it."

"In a good way or bad one?"

"It depends on the point of view." Was her only response.

Steve looked back at her noticing how serious her face had become and how she had fixed her gaze on the vegetation too: "And how do you know?"

"As a seer, I can see certain possibilities of various futures based on people's choices. It's a complex kind of magic, Captain Rogers. It is better not to waste time on useless explanations. Maybe one day I can give you all the answers you want."

"And what can you tell me about that future then?"

"Nothing or it will not happen."

The Captain frowned: "How are you so sure?"

Her brown eyes looked back at him seriously: "I cannot reveal to you the future of a world in which you could choose to live." and once she said that she rose from the bench: "Well, I must go home now. My parents were already scared enough when they discovered I was out during the invasion and they probably won't let me out of my room for months after seeing the wounds I have." she turned to him smiling one last time: "Choose with caution Captain and maybe one day we will see each other again." Then she walked away along the park's path.

"Wait! I don't know your name!" He shouted after her suddenly feeling that such detail was more important than anything else.

She answered without even turning waving only one hand over her shoulder: "I'm Claire."

Claire ... what a strange little girl …

Steve lost himself watching her walk away until she had completely disappeared from his sight. His fingers tightened around the two Pym particles he still had for his last leap into the past and back, the second was the one he had thought to use to reach 1946.

What should he do? The girl's words kept spinning in his head and he found himself more confused than before.

He decided to get up and walk away from the bench in the direction of the park entrance to clear his mind and once he arrived at the gates of Central Park he saw something that helped reaching his final decision.

"Hey Cap, could you come to the tower tomorrow? The lab is still intact and I have in mind some changes for your shield that would make it more efficient in battle."

"Don't play jokes with me, Stark."

Tony and his 2012 self were standing across the street next to a gorgeous flaming red sports car and a motorcycle that SHIELD had rent for him. He remembered that conversation: they had just left the restaurant where they had ate Shawarma all six heros together and the next day they would see Thor and Loki leave for Asgard.

Steve studied his friend seeing how in the next eleven years he would grow old without ever losing the charisma that made everyone turn around when he passed.

"No joke I swear, but with today's technologies I can make that shield more maneuverable and easy to carry around."

He saw himself studying the man who at the time still didn't know whether to consider a friend or not then nod with a dry gesture: "I'll be there."

"Then I'll wait for you after seeing Thunderman and his megalomaniac brother leaving."

Then the two Avengers of the past climbed onto their respective rides and departed in different directions.

Steve didn't need anything else to decide what to do…

"And he is back in three, two, one ..." Bruce Banner said behind the controls of the time machine that he had to rebuild following Tony's plans activating it again. Bucky didn't expected to see his friend reappear and waited for the surprised reaction of the other two with his hands thrust into the pockets of his jacket, but once again his best friend caught him unprepared reappearing on the platform with a determined look on his face.

"All right, Cap?" Sam asked as he stood beside the console with his arms crossed in front of his chest unaware of the captain intentions with which he had left a few seconds before, at least according to their point of view.

"Yes, everything went smoothly."said the Captain as he descended the stairs and patted the black man on the shoulder before thanking Banner and approaching his childhood friend.

"What are you doing here?" Bucky asked him in surprise: "I thought I had to wait for an old centenary for our next meeting."

"I understood a lot while I was in the past." Steve admitted staring at him with a sincere smile: "Peggy has always been all that kept me from going on in this strange future, but ... I have friends here, an irreplaceable team and wonderful memories even if there are some painful ones. I can't leave my family behind for me. Peggy is my past, all of you are my future."

"Wait! Are you saying you weren't going to come back?" Banner exclaimed in surprise approaching them with Falcon who had heard everything.

Steve smiled at his fellow Avengers before giving them a sign to follow him: "Come on, I have several things to tell you." and together they returned to the Stark house.

He told his story to all his family and his decision seemed to have a strong impact on that of all the others.

Thor chose to stay on Midgar taking seriously the role of King of New Asgard, but making sure that Valkyrie was ready to take care of their people when during his absences and he was intent on reconnecting with Jane Foster.

Pepper decided that in honor of her deceased husband she would have the Avengers Compound rebuilt and Steve agreed to lead the team again of which Banner, Clint, Sam and Wanda decided to be part again; Bucky also agreed to join the team and Scott considered it deciding to consult first with Hope, Dr. Pym and his daughter while Peter decided he would go back to school as Tony would have wanted, but he would have attended training to stay in the team.

T'Challa promised a close collaboration between Wakanda laboratories and those of Stark Industries to help the Avengers while Dr. Strange said he would return to the sanctuary in New York, but to not hesitate to ask for his advice or help if it were necessary;

Carol also said that she would have intervened if she had been asked in the future, but she had the whole universe to help and therefore would not have remained on earth for long.

The Guardians of Galaxy wanted to leave ro search all space for the Gamora of the past that had disappeared at the end of the battle.

Finally Fury promised to rebuild SHIELD from scratch with the help of Hill, Sharon Carter and others ex-agents still loyal.

After a long afternoon spent between the captain's stories and decisions about the future, everyone helped to prepare the abundant dinner necessary to fill every stomach especially that of two super soldiers.

They were in the garden chatting, laughing with a few tears when a car appeared into the path that led to the house and everyone stopped to watch the small acid green and white smart park not too far from the patio.

When the door opened, a young woman got out of the car and she was twenty-five or twenty-six years old with long brown hair like the eyes, she wore a beautiful black dress without sleeves just above the knee and vertiginous heels, around the neck she had a gold chain with a strange pendant that few would recognize as a triqueta.

"I hope I'm not too late," she said in a warm voice and a dazzling smile.

"Miss, can we help you somehow?" Asked Pepper stepping forward but pushing Morgan towards Happy to protect her.

"I'm just here to see an old friend." the enigmatic stranger replied.

"I know you." Steve said studying her with confusion in his eyes and interrupting any of Pepper's replies.

"Really Cap?" Sam asked him as he looked between the two of them just like everyone else was doing.

"You were at one of the many meetings I held to help overcome the extermination of Thanos." the captain commented continuing to look at he carefully: "You have approached me several times to ask if I really believed in what I kept repeating to all those who were at the meetings."

"Is that the only memory you have of our meetings? I kept coming to your meetings just to be sure you were okay- After all, the man who had saved my life in 2012 had finally experienced most of the tragic events that had marked the eyes of his future counterpart."

Those words were enough to make him understand who was in front of him and stammered in surprise: "Claire? Is that you? " and instinctively took a step in his direction finally noticing the beautiful woman she had become. He had been right about her, the teenager that had helped him had become a splendid woman. Her smile was very familiar and, without thinking, he ran to her enveloping her in a warm embrace which she immediately returned squeezing her arms around his waist.

"Thank you," he murmured in her ear feeling her small hands on his shoulder blades through the light t-shirt he had worn once the uniform was removed.

"I knew you would have made the right choice." she told him when they parted and their eyes met just like it had happened in 2012.

"You made me understand a lot of things in those few minutes." he admitted gratefully.

"I'm happy."

When they separated, they continued to stare into each other's eyes lost in a bond that was born in the past and had tied them to one another in an indissoluble way.

"Steve." Bucky called him and the Captain turned to look at his friends noting that they were somewhat confused. Then he turned back to Claire, taking her small hand in his much larger one: "Are you staying for dinner? There is so much to eat."

"I don't want to disturb you." she whispered suddenly shy looking down at the ground.

"No trouble." Pepper broke in and approached the couple with a sincere smile: "A friend of Cap is also our friend, you are welcome to stay."

Claire smiled at the woman: "Thank you Mrs. Stark."

Pepper shook her head keeping her smile despite the use of that name had brought tears in her eyes: "Call me Pepper."

"Claire." The witch introduced herself stretching out a hand that the older woman immediately shaked firmly.

"Come on or the food will get cold," she told her before returning to the table.

Steve and Claire exchanged a quick glance and he smiled at her: "It will be a rather chaotic dinner. It was so when we were only six, now ..."

"Yes, I can imagine." she remarked with a laugh as they approached the table too.

"We won't be able to talk much tonight." Steve confessed giving her a look of apology before taking courage and asking her something he never would have thought to be able to ask a woman: "Maybe we could have a coffee together tomorrow, I know a nice place in Brooklyn where they serve the best apple pie in the city and we could use that time to talk about what we went through." then after a second he added: "Even though I believe you already know almost everything about me."

"Maybe, but I'd love to accept your invitation anyway." she said blushing slightly: "Talking in person is less impersonal than knowing someone through my visions."

"Perfect." Was his happy reply as he helped her to sit at the table next to him moving the chair gallantly.

And that evening, all the Avengers dined like old friends, they came to know the wonderful witch who had helped their Captain to return to them and toasted at the memory of the two most brave people that they had ever known by raising their glasses to the sky.

"To Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff!"


End file.
